Here is the article & its reply!
Some of you guys not in Aviation (or CX) should just stay out of it!
I wish Pprune gave us a private forum!
Pilots still live the good life
May 11, 2009
In response to Mark Peaker's letter ("Support Cathay in difficult time", May 4), I dispute that Cathay Pacific (SEHK: 0293) is in any financial trouble, faces ongoing difficulties or requires our sympathy.
This is clear by the continued excessive housing subsidies and salaries paid to pilots.
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Anyone feeling sorry for this firm should visit South Lantau where nearly every new or second-hand home purchase is made by a Cathay pilot.
Cathay's management could reduce a significant amount of recurring cost from its operations by eliminating or significantly reducing these excessive allowances. However, there appears to be little desire to do this, instead favouring such measures as unpaid leave.
These blanket policies affect lower-paid cabin crew and ground staff while protecting fat-cat pilots.
Can Cathay's management team justify excessive housing allowances and salaries to the public and shareholders?
Craig Sanderson, Lantau
REPLY
Pilots haven't had a pay rise in 10 years, even as inflation bites
May 14, 2009
Craig Sanderson ("Pilots still live the good life", May 11) clearly does not have a very clear picture of the actual remuneration package of Cathay Pacific (SEHK: 0293) pilots, nor does he appear to understand the new unpaid leave scheme put forward by the company.
For a start, the scheme that Cathay Pacific proposed to its employees does not favour pilots at all - as your seniority within the company rises, so too does the percentage of your pay that will be cut.
Those with the lowest-paid positions in the company will forfeit only about 3.8 per cent of their salary over six months, while higher ranks such as pilots will forfeit as much as 15.4 per cent of their salary.
Second, Cathay Pacific pilots have not had a pay rise in about 10 years, and in some cases the only adjustment to their salary over this period has been a pay cut.
The average consumer price index rise over this period of about 4 per cent has seen the pay package of all Cathay pilots deteriorate significantly.
Furthermore, changes made to the provident fund mean that many of Cathay's pilots feel they must take advantage of their housing allowance to pay off a mortgage if they are to have any chance of having sufficient savings for retirement.
Mr Sanderson refers to Cathay pilots as "fat cats". He belittles our profession without any idea of the skill that is required to be a pilot in the modern environment, or the work we put in to maintain and improve our skills as professionals.
I put it to Mr Sanderson that, if he were to be on an aircraft with a serious malfunction, he would be hard pressed to find a more capable set of hands with which to entrust his safety than a Cathay Pacific pilot.
Perhaps there is another reason why he writes to the South China Morning Post (SEHK: 0583, announcements, news) . He appears to be bitter about something.
Is he really concerned about the public welfare or the Cathay Pacific shareholders, or is he more concerned about his own ability to buy a house on Lantau?